West County Winery started Cider Day in l994, to mark l0 years of fermenting. Check out www.ciderday.org to find out about the next CiderDay.

Apples have been the mainstay fruit of New England since English varieties were brought here with the Puritans. As soon as they were able, farmers fermented the fruit, since the barley needed for beer thrives in 'limey' soil, not the acidic soil of New England.

How well the apple trees thrived is indicated by Charles J. Taylor in his "History of Great Barrington" (l882).He states that by l770 the Indian path between the Stockbridge tribe at Great Barrington, Ma. and the Scaticoke village at Kent, Conn. (40 miles along the Housatonic), was lined with apple trees. They had sprung from apple cores thrown to the side by native Americans who had walked the path or canoed along the river.

Each garden, each farm had its apple trees. Orchardists experimented and sent their apple harvest to the growing cities, as well as to Europe. Yet much of the harvest was pressed each year, barreled and bunged for local pleasure.

"As one instance, Hartford, Vermont, farmers worked together in a cider club, making 24 barrels average per member." (p. 217, Howard Russell, A Long Deep Furrow, University Press of New England, Hanover, N.H., l976.)

John Chapman, 'Johnny Appleseed,' left Leominster, Mass., for Indiana and Ohio. Walking, he scattered apple seed through the hills and homesteads of the just-settled land, thus assuring the newcomers of pies, fresh fruit -- and good hard cider.